I'm Alice Schlein, a weaver and book maker in South Carolina. Occasionally I write about Photoshop, Network Drafting, bread baking, and whatever else strikes my fancy. Thanks for stopping by! Comments are welcome.

Classes

Explore Color and Texture on Your Rigid Heddle Loom

Wednesday afternoons, 1-4 p.m., taught at OLLI, Furman University, January 16 through March 6. Participants to supply their own rigid heddle looms. Supply list given. Contact me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for more information.

Books

The Woven Pixel: Designing for Jacquard and Dobby Looms Using Photoshop®Co-authored by Alice Schlein and Bhakti Ziek. 362 pages, many illustrations. Now available for free download on handweaving.net. The accompanying CD with 1400 pattern presets is not included with the free download, but may be purchased separately. Email me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for more information.

Network Drafting: An IntroductionBy Alice Schlein. Break away from the block. Curves for your dobby loom. Originally published in 1994, now available as print-on-demand from www.lulu.com.

Monographs

Lampas for Shaft LoomsClass notes from Complex Weavers Seminars 2016, newly revised and formatted, in pdf form for download. A review of methods for designing your own lampas fabrics for treadle looms, table looms, and dobbies, eight shafts and above. Over 90 color photos of actual fabrics with drafts. Includes info on pickup lampas and a lampas bibliography. View on a computer, or print out one copy for your own use. USD$21. via PayPal. Email aschlein[at]att[dot]net for ordering info.

A Crepe Is Not Just a Pancake52 pages of text, b&w and color diagrams, and drafts for multishaft tradle & dobby looms. Many color photos of actual cloth. Methods for drafting your own crepe weaves. Annotated bibliography. Pdf available for immediate download. $21. USD. Payment by PayPal. Email me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for payment instructions.

Echo Weave Based on the 1996 article in Weaver's, Issue 32. With brand new diagrams and high resolution scans of original fabrics. Pdf available for immediate download. $7. USD. Payment by PayPal. Email me at aschlein[at]att[dot]net for payment instructions.

August 13, 2018

The four new deflected doubleweave samples were cut off, finished, and washed. Amazingly, the symmetrical design was not my favorite. The one that really caught my eye was this oddball design, because after washing, a reindeer emerged!

I liked this fellow so much that I posted him on Instagram (I'm aschlein over there if you want to follow me). Forgive me for the duplication.

With what's left on the warp I thought a scarf would be nice. But I'm starting to have shredding problems with the beige cotton/linen from Gist. It's a gorgeous yarn but tends to shred and needs extra care as warp. Out came the temples. They help a lot.

The red thread is a measuring aid.

And now a digression. There is an old car circulating through my family, with many treasured memories attached. It's in very good shape, except for the sun visors, which are functional but deteriorated on the surfaces. Willy suggested going through my handwoven stash and finding some fabric for slipcovers. Voilà. My upholstery skills would not pass close inspection, but overall the effect is rakish. Check that one off the to-do list.

May 06, 2018

More about Two Years Before the Mast, which I spoke about in my previous post.

In this book I was particularly struck by the references to textile pursuits. The ship's crew, in rare spare moments, was usually engaged in rope-making and rope-mending activities, the shredding of old rope into oakum (a caulking material composed of shredded fiber and tar), and the making and mending of their own clothing. Yes, by the end of the voyage, our author was actually adept at making his own jackets and trousers! Necessity is the mother of...

I guess this is not a great leap - this morning I decided to tackle the hole in an old hammock with cotton cord and wood glue. I splinted the cut ends with new rope, glued all the knots and joins, and wrapped them with more cord. Then I Introduced a few new cords. It's not pretty, but will give this wonderful old hammock a few more years of life, me hearties!

In the lampas department, I settled on a design with a lot of randomness to it. I think it will be good for clothing. No big dinner plates here.

A thoughtful guest has left an interesting plant on my kitchen table. I love the patterns in this specimen. Does anyone know what it is?

November 09, 2017

A few wallhangings woven in past months have been waiting on my worktable, needing finishing. A grim & overcast day was the perfect time to address this backlog.

The first step was to machine stitch the cut edges to stop unraveling. The following picture shows the wrong side, and you can see the warp floats of the lampas (peach color silk). The twill-like section is the hem area, and it will appear black & white on the right side.

Here's a peek at the right side being turned back. After the hem is hand stitched, a wooden rod will be inserted.

Also part of the finishing is label-making. My very old Bernina is one of the first sewing machines with digital capabilities. It comes before the whiz-bang machines with huge color screens, Windows, embroidery, and other such glamorous features. It sews a plain and simple alphabet, and it does it well. I love it and would never "trade up" despite many offers I have received from my local shop. Apparently this model is in great demand used, and no wonder.

After the stitching I pull all tails to the back & trim the labels and press back hems; then I hand stitch the labels invisibly to the back of the hangings. The labels are non-destructive and can be removed if I ever decide to "recycle" the hangings & cut them up for book covers.

April 19, 2017

I've just finished weaving a group of hangings, and it's time to make labels for them. I like to do these on an old Bernina. It has a simple alphabet function, nothing fancy, just one basic font. But the input is fiddly, and test sew-outs are in order to be sure no spelling errors creep in. These sew-outs take on a life of their own. They look like little palimpsests. The tails of rayon embroidery threads curl up every which way. I am easily entertained.

February 21, 2017

A school holiday was the perfect opportunity for a sewing lesson. Here Catalina is making friends with the Singer Featherweight. She cut out a pair of flannel p.j. bottoms, then sewed them up, just in time for lunch.

February 17, 2017

Today I introduce you to two of my favorite tools. First is my Singer Featherweight, manufactured in 1941. I took it out of its case and gave it a thorough oiling, in preparation for a sewing lesson with Catalina tomorrow. Here is a bottom view. This little machine just purrs along and makes the most beautiful seam. Just forward & reverse, no zigzags, but the nicest straight stitch you have ever seen.

Another favorite old tool is my garlic press. I though it was lost, but it just turned up again a few days ago. So happy to see it! Hooray! There will be fresh garlic in tonight's chili, and my hands won't stink for a week, either.

December 17, 2016

I just finished reading Hermione Lee's biography of Penelope Fitzgerald, "Penelope Fitzgerald: A Life". Two of my favorite Fitzgerald novels are "Offshore" and "The Bookshop." Read them! Fitzgerald is a master of understatement, irony, and the deft combination of the tragic and the comic. One of the many delicious moments in Lee's bio is the revelation of some notes for Fitzgerald's projected (but sadly never written) novel about grandmothers:

A grandmother clock is smaller than a grandfather clock and, by inference, weaker … A granny knot is one that comes undone at once, granny bonds are or were a saving scheme which was simple enough for even the densest to understand, a granny flat is a subsection of the main house where the damage granny may do through absent-mindedness will be under kindly control. Grannies lose things, which they call not knowing where they’ve put them … I suppose the expression “Teach your grandmother to suck eggs” implies that grannies know how to do something , but not anything of any practical use.

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Today's studio time was spent in finishing the bottom hems of the Double Twill Project. This makes me think of an old friend who once offered me a job indexing a book about Asian bureaucracies. "I've observed that you enjoy repetitive tasks involving a lot of detail," he said. Hm-m-m. I would rather say that I enjoy tasks that involve a lot of detail, with scope for meditation. In any case, I did complete 90% of the index before childbirth intervened. As I am now an old Granny in a retrospective mood, I will say that handstitching is more fun than indexing.

December 15, 2016

"By the pricking of my thumbs, something wicked this way comes" is a line from Shakespeare's Macbeth, also the title of an Agatha Christie novel. And—although I haven't seen this myself—the title of an Outlander episode on TV.

But for me, it's the perfect title for today's stint in the studio. My thumbs are sore and bleeding from seasonal winter dry skin and from endless handstitching on the velcro'd top hems of the Double Twill Project. To protect my hands and to keep from getting blood on the fabric, I wrap cloth bandaids around my thumbs while I am stitching.

Well, the inevitable happened. I stitched the bandaid to the panel. Clever me. But easily corrected. Then after stitching the final panel, I turned it to the right side to inspect it, and to my disgust saw that I had trapped a pin inside the hem. So I ripped out part of the hem, retrieved the pin, and restitched it.

Here's a view of the little numbers woven into the bottom hems to indicate the order in which the panels are to be hung.

December 13, 2016

As I hadn't yet seen the Blue Ridge Fiber Show, and it's closing in January, we headed up the mountain today. The skies looked like this. We were undeterred.

This is always an enjoyable and varied show, with work by professionals and beginners alike. There's a good helping of weaving and felting, and I noticed a generous amount of very accomplished spinning this year. The garments were outstanding. You can check out a listing of award winners, but you'll need a magnifying glass to see the pictures. The conditions weren't optimal for me to photograph the work with my phone; however, I did manage to get a decent picture of this wonderful garment by Teena Tuenge:

Afterwards we drove to Teena's for a studio visit and I asked her about the very versatile structure she uses for many of her garments. She reminded me that she wrote an article about it in Issue #100 of the Complex Weavers Journal. If you're lucky enough to have this issue, look it up. It's a fascinating study.